Surface Irrigation Performance Evaluations of Geray Reservoir Scheme, Northern, Ethiopia

Irrigation performance study is mainly valuable for the proper utilization and allocation of water resources potential in particular watersheds. The study area is located, in the west Gojjam zone Amhara region of Ethiopia. The aims of this study were to evaluating the performances of the Geray irrigation area, with appropriate internal and external measures. For the realization of this study primary, and secondary, data and directly applied cropwat8 software were used for crop water requirement analysis. Discharge measurements at the main and secondary canal, soil moisture at the irrigation field, and respective stakeholder interviews about the irrigation user were conducted. The conveyance efficiency was evaluated at the main and secondary canals and the application efficiency of the scheme was evaluated at the head, middle, and tail of the farmers’ field. The results show that the average conveyance efficiency of main canals and secondary canals were 77.7%, 82%, and 42.1 respectively, and the average application efficiency of the scheme was 61.38%. From 2019 up to 2023 the values relative to water supply were 0.98, 1.16, 1.07, 1.26, and 2.0 respectively. Performance indicators showed that Geray irrigation field was in moderate irrigation performance and it needs smaller improvement to enhance productivity and sustainability of the scheme. Keywords: Geray, Conveyance, Application efficiency, Cropwat, irrigation scheduling